Old Nail on Old Wood

Nature's Trophy Series

 Old Nail on Old Wood

"Serendipity, a divine discovery..." 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Old Nail on an Old Wood with a mural background, both by the author.  

On display at Living with Nature Center, San Vicente Ilocos Sur 2020

I found them separately and put them together,

for what reason and how is serendipity, 

a divine discovery, and I, a disciple of Helena
and Constantine, guardians of Christianity.

How little I know of spirituality, less of divinity,

and the oneness of faith called universality,

where holiness bestows the pious and faithful,

and I, I only found relics under an old tree.  

Through the crown of the tree came flying free,

white doves against the blue sky and sea, 

where my faith blends with my old love biology, 

And I, I am a witness to a great mystery. ~

Nature's trophy Series: Blue Bracket Fungus

Blue Bracket Fungus (Postia caesia)*

Layer after layer, shelf after shelf,

season after season, you grow

into a colony several storeys high,

page after page, row by row,

dying in summer, rising in spring,

bluest in autumn glow;

rarest color in living things on earth, 

yet widest, deepest is blue; 

dead you'll be after your host tree,

beyond you live as a trophy.

Dr Abe V Rotor 

A colony of blue bracket mushroom (Postia caesia) made into a piece of art - Nature's trophy by the author. The trophy, 14" tall, is among other Nature's trophies on display at Living with Nature Center, San Vicente Botanical Garden, San Vicente Ilocos Sur

*Bracket fungi, or shelf fungi, are among the many groups of fungi that comprise the phylum Basidiomycota. Characteristically, they produce shelf- or bracket-shaped or occasionally circular fruiting bodies called conks that lie in a close pattern, (Internet)

Cryptobotany* - The tree that rose from a broken jar

Cryptobotany* 

 The tree that rose from a broken jar   

Dr Abe V Rotor

If the Phoenix bird a cryptid, so with the kapre

     in the balete in children's book;

Out of a broken jar emerges an reptile-like tree,

     with menacing poise and look.

They have stood sentinel in the forest and plain,

     guardian against man's unending

greed and folly for material wealth, honor, fame - 

     telling him the cause of his suffering. **

 

Top view of  a cryptid tree  

 

Back and front view of the cryptid tree

* Cryptobotany or cryptophytology is a field related to cryptozoology, dedicated to the study and search for formally undescribed plants. Due to their nature, cryptid plants are far less common than cryptid animals: an animal is mobile and will not remain in the same spot for long, whilst a plant is immobile, and therefore likely to be formally documented and described after only a single encounter. (Encyclopaedia of Cryptozoology, Internet)

** Beliefs in the spirits have helped preserve Nature against man's destructive hands as he pursued a "progressive and enlightened culture." The greatest destruction of the environment was in the last 200 years, the impact of which is most felt in our postmodern world today.   

Dialogue with the Butterfly

      Dialogue with the Butterfly

"I cannot reach for the rainbow, 

neither can I make one, 

but you, by your wings and wand, 

can build the biggest crown."

                                                                Dr Abe V Rotor 

                 Anna, author’s daughter visits a butterfly garden in Bohol

              Exquisite netted venation of a butterfly wing, representing nature's architecture universal in the insect world, flying foxes, leaves of most plants, and blood vessels in human and other creatures.

  

Life cycle of the butterfly - from egg to caterpillar to pupa to adult - the butterfly.

Fly me to your world, oh butterfly,

where flows the Pierian Spring,

the fountain of youth eternal,

where Sylphids dance and sing.

 

I'd rather wish to be in your garden    

foe and friend yet we're one,

where the tree of knowledge blooms,

nurtured by rain and sun.

 

I cannot reach for the rainbow,

neither can I make one,

but you, by your wings and wand,

build the biggest crown.

 

Your sense of beauty’s not ours,

fleeting and elusive,

ephemeral to your senses all,

before it is perceived.

 

Just for once, oh butterfly, to leave  

the home of my ancestor,

I shall cease to ask another favor    

nor crave for more. 

 

      Then I shall fly no more in your garden; 

      the flowers will die with the fountain,

      and all that lives shall crave the same

      with nothing to hope and gain. ~

 

Museum: Miniature Dioramas of Nature

 Museum: Miniature Dioramas of Nature - you can make one yourself

Dr Abe V Rotor

These miniature dioramas are among dozens of student projects depicting the biomes and ecosystems of the world. They graced the SPUQC museum for 15 years, and became inspiration to art enthusiasts and budding scientists.

Why don't you make dioramas about nature? Viewing these samples may help you build one in your school - or in your home. Do not attempt to make a big one immediately. You will graduate to that - even to a life size diorama when you'll have the skill and experience. Use local materials - maybe recycled, but remember - aim at exhibiting it in a museum. It must be authentic, complete and beautiful to be appreciated.

Don't hurry, take time, research to make every part true and scientific. Ask your humanities teacher on the artistic part, your biology or ecology teacher for the technical side. Plan well, forget the cartoons and fantasies for the moment. What you are doing is a replica of nature - how it looks, what it is made of, how it responds to changing times, its aesthetics, its function, its appeal. You are now an artist and a scientist!

The Ocean Biome and Coral Reef Ecosystem

Scientists today believe that eighty percent of the world’s species of organisms are found in the sea. One can imagine the vastness of the oceans as their habitat – four kilometers deep on the average (12 km at the deepest, Mariana Trench and Philippine Deep), covering 78 percent of the surface of the earth. Young people create scenarios of Jules Verne’s, “Ten Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,” such as this diorama, imagining man’s futuristic exploration in the deep led by Captain Nemo, the idealistic but ruthless scientist. Such scenarios are no longer fantasy today – they are scenes captured by the camera and other modern tools of research. And the subject is not one of exploration alone, but conservation, for our oceans, limitless as they seem, are facing the same threats of pollution and other abuses man is doing inflicting on land and air. The sea is man’s last frontier. Let us give it a chance.

The Tropical Rainforest

The earth once wore a green belt on her midriff – the rainforest, which covered much of her above and below the equator. Today this cover has been reduced, and is still shrinking. The nakedness of the earth can be felt everywhere. One place is our country where only 10 percent of our original cover remains. Even the great Amazon Basin is threatened. As man moves to new areas, put up dwellings, plant crops, becomes affluent, increases in number, the tropical rain forest shrinks. Our thinking that it is the source of natural resources is wrong. These are finite and not only that, the ecosystem itself once destroyed, cannot be replaced. It can not regenerate if the soil is eroded, if the climate around it is changed. It is everyone’s duty to protect the tropical rainforest, the bastion of thousands of species of organisms. In fact it is the riches of all the biomes on earth.

Savannah - biome for safari

Island and Atoll Ecosystems - characteristic of thousands

of mainly volcanic islands in the world.

Desert biome - second largest biome after ocean

Scenarios of Sahara flash in the mind the moment the word “desert” is brought out to both young and old in fantasy or vivid reality. Here are wastelands, so vast that they dwarf the imagination. They may lie at the very core of continents like Australia and North America, or extend to high altitude (Atacama Desert) or altitude (Siberia) where temperatures runs way below zero degrees Celsius. Here, rain seldom comes. It is a lucky place where rain falls, and when it does, the desert suddenly blooms into multi-facetted designs, shape and colors of short-growing plants. Sooner the desert is peacefully dry and eerie once more, except the persistent cacti and their boarders, shrubs and bushes that break the monotony of sand and sand dunes. But somewhere the “desert is hiding a well,” so sang the lost pilot and the little prince in Exupery’s novelette, “The Little Prince.” He was referring of course to oasis, waterhole in the desert. It is here that travelers mark their route, animals congregate, nations put claim on political borders. Ecologically this is the nerve center of life, spiritually the bastion of hope, a new beginning, renewal, the source of eternal joy. The desert is not a desert after all.

Two versions of Maria Cristina Falls in Mindanao

                                     Alpine, representing high rise mountains

 

Child kissing a fish

 Child kissing a fish  

Dr Abe V Rotor

Child plants a kiss on an aquarium fish. At home, QC 

That's the way innocence works -

ephemeral to behold; 

time is of the essence but once  

and reigns only in childhood,

when barriers are bridged and crossed,

in the diversity of the world,

and to spread love to all creatures,

  the very young and the old;

praise what it means years ahead 

this child and the living word

unspoken, a kiss of innocence 

that promises accord. ~     

  

Dirge of a Dying Creek

    Dirge of a Dying Creek    

                      "I am dying, dear mother, I long for you and my kin;

I choke with debris, laden with waste matter,

my banks are no more, concrete walls have taken over,

I am dying mother ..."

          Dr Abe V Rotor

The afternoon sun casts an aura of the creek's once beautiful state with trees and shrubs lining its banks. Now the creek is virtually dead - biologically. Note highly polluted water and dumped quarry materials blocking the natural waterway. (Parallel Aurora Blvd, QC)  

Balete or Strangler's Fig clings on an adobe rock cliff.

Views of middle stream, and upper stream to the east. The creek is now an open sewer, ugly, obnoxious 

Outgrowth extends over the creek as if to hide its pathetic condition and man's indifference from public view, 

Just across the creek to the north lies a man-made pond of the Oasis - serene and aesthetic, except the foul air of Carbon Dioxide, Hydrogen Sulfide, methane, ammonia and other gases, being emitted by the nearby creek

.

Dirge of a Dying Creek                   

  

Once upon a time, so the story goes, clouds gather 

from the sea and land, cumulus to nimbus,

falling as rain, drenching the trees and grass and all,

and down the lake and river and field it goes. 

I was born this way, like my kin, many miles away,

children of Pasig River, seat of a civilization,

the artery of vast Laguna Lake and historic Manila Bay,

and I, a tributary of this magnificent creation.     

I lived in the stories of Balagtas the poet laureate,

in Rizal's novels, Abelardo's Kundiman song,

I throbbed with the happy heart of a living system,  

like the Rhine, Danube, Nile and Mekong.

I am part of history, obedient to man and nature's will,

I gave him clean water and fish, I sang lullaby;

laughed with the children at play under my care,

through generations and time sweetly went by. 

Seasons come and go, the story goes on - ad infinitum -

but where are the birds that herald habagat?

where have all the children gone after class, in summer?

reflection on my water, green carpet on my rock?

I am dying, dear mother, I long for you and my kin,

I choke with debris, laden with waste matter,

my banks are no more, concrete walls have taken over,

I am dying mother -  but my mother doesn't answer;  

                       my mother doesn't answer.~

Prism in a Forest

 Prism in a Forest

Dr Abe V Rotor

If colors were sounds
then I hear music,
harmonious and pure
of the Eden I seek. 
 

If prism makes a gown
regal and queenly, 
it's woven by an unseen 
no other but Thee.~

Acknowledgement: photo from Internet

Takong - the Nest-Building Sow

 

Dr. Abe V. Rotor

Crossbred offspring shows traces of its native parent - the domesticated wild pig

When I was a farmhand I watched Takong – mother pig, build a nest. She gathered dry banana stalks, rice straw, leaves, and if there were clothes or blanket on a sagging clothesline, they would likely end up as nesting materials.

Takong was a native pig and carried much of the features of baboy damo or wild pig. Her fangs were long, protruding and curved outward, resembling amulets. Her snout was long, her skin dark gray and loose, her hair wiry. She was seldom without caked mud over her body because she loved to wallow. She strayed on the farm, subsisting on rice bran, fruits and vegetables, or whatever leftovers there were after threshing or milling.

“Our sow is ready to give birth,” my dad announced. Takong had been in her nest and if it were not for her gray color, heaving and grunting, you would dismiss her nest as a mere pile of rubbish. That night I heard grunting and squeaking. Our sow was giving birth. The piglets came out at intervals.

As the first rays of the sun peep through the den, I cautiously searched how many piglets our sow had delivered. There were ten piglets in all! But none was wholly black like the mother. They had shades of white and gray, their snouts were shorter and upturned. Their father was of a foreign breed, stocky and bigger than Takong with snub nose and flappy ears. Takong laid on one side and obediently nursed her litter, each taking possession of a teat. "Just don't get too close." my father warned.

Father knows that even if animals have been domesticated, they still carry the evolutionary gene designed to protect their young against any enemy they perceive - which may include their own masters. Animals are most dangerous at nesting time and after giving birth until the young are ready to be weaned. Another warning my dad emphasized is that never touch the young, more so to take them away from the nest or litter.

We can't resist picking up newly born animals, like kittens and puppies, because they are lovable. Their mother can easily sense our intrusion. She may abandon the poor cute thing, or even kill or eat it. Or she takes the whole litter away to a safe place.

In the wild, animals can sense danger that may threaten the whole litter, if not the whole herd. According to sociobiology as proposed by Dr EO Wilson, altruism and sacrifice are actually part of behavioral instinct which is important to the survival of the species, to the extent of sacrificing its individual members. Murder and cannibalism among animals may be explained with this theory. So with sudden attacks on people by pets, by animals in zoo and circus.

Takong's offspring soon reached weaning time. Dad sold them as growers, leaving one to become our next sow. It bore less features of the mother than the father. " It got more blood from her father," said Anding, our caretaker. I named our future sow Turik, meaning multiple spots. We built a pen for Turik to protect her from the sun and rain, and from other animals. Feeding and watering troughs were made for easier work. Twice the local veterinarian came to give Turik immunization.

I missed Takong, I never saw a sow build a nest again.~

xxx

Ulirang Ama 2019

  Ulirang Ama 2019

DR ABERCIO V ROTOR and PM GENERAL GUILLERMO ELEAZAR

Hi! This was taken during the Ulirang Ama Awarding last June 16 held at The Manila Hotel. My grandpa, Dr. Abercio Rotor, was one of the awardees together with another ulirang ama. I always pretend to play as a super-agent, that is why, when I met NCRPO PM General Guillermo Eleazar, i was so happy! Someday, I want to be like him! And I was also happy because I got to play and spend some time with my grandpa, grand ma, tita anne and tito mac, tito carwow, and my cousins; mackie and marcus. It was a very happy Father’s Day. HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Mateo Laurencio Vicente M Rotor

My first canvas painting , 60 years ago

 My First Canvas Painting

Dr Abe V Rotor

Calm but empty landscape in oil, AV Rotor, circa 1960

How to start painting, I must say you must be sad,

and after expressing your feelings, you feel glad.

Or you are extremely happy, the world is all yours,

riding on an air balloon defying gravity's force. 

When your genes bear the talent of your ancestors,

by Mendelian chance you take the artists' course. 

Where you spent your childhood you feel nostalgic;

 capture the scenes in impressions, real or romantic. 

Where books and experience at a crossroad meet,

each art form, movement and artist you shall greet.

Empty in stomach, and the mind, from lack of rest,

 Art's world is akin to a battlefield, the ultimate test.

Armed with tools, it matters not if you have less, 

if you have the focus, and imagination at its crest.

Time takes you yonder and forever, you can't escape;

the artist's world is as varied as the landscape. 

In my art workshop  I have Picasso and Van Gogh,

looking at what my first painting has to show. ~ 

Stained Glass Windows - Revival of an Old Art

Stained Glass Windows - Revival of an Old Art

"People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." - Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Dr Abe V Rotor

Nativity, Mt Carmel Church, Gilmore Ave, QC

Boy Jesus with scribes, Mt Carmel Church, Gilmore Ave, QC

Christ in his mission

Our Lady of Mt Carmel

Composite stained glass, Mt Carmel Church, Gilmore Ave, QC

Girl Therese: stirrings of a religious vocation.

Therese takes vow of religious life.

Commitment to a religious vocation.

Last days of a short but fulfilled life.

St Therese of the Child Jesus

Mother and Child, James Reuter SJ Theater, St Paul University QC

Resurrection, James Reuter SJ Theater, St Paul University QC

St Paul the Apostle, James Reuter SJ Theater, St Paul University QC

Death of St Paul, St Paul of Chartres Vigil House chapel, Antipolo, Rizal 

Jerusalem, St Paul of Chartres Vigil House chapel, Antipolo, Rizal

Acknowledgment: Selected stained glass windows of Mt Carmel Church QC, St Therese Church, The Fort, St Paul University QC, and Vigil House SPC, Antipolo.